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HomeIllustrations

50,739 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

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Sermon Illustration

Twenty-Six Days

On the morning of October 31, 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton was lying on her surfboard off the north shore of Kauai when a fourteen-foot tiger...

Universalfaith

234 words

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Contemporary

The Book That Suffering Wrote

In February 1944, Nazi soldiers raided a narrow house on Barteljorisstraat in Haarlem, Netherlands, arresting the ten Boom family for hiding Jews. Corrie ten Boom...

Romans 8:28Universalforgivenessfaith

246 words

Sermon Illustration

A Modern Story of Questioning Traditional Doctrines

In our fast-paced, ever-evolving world, many of us find ourselves wrestling with the implications of our faith, much like the early Christians who stood at the crossroads of tradition and transformation. Take, for example, a woman named Sarah, a devoted...

Luke 6:20-21Lutheran

289 words

Application Point

Putting Into Practice: AI & Human Dignity - Illustration

Imagine a community where the beauty of *agape*—that selfless love which knows no boundaries—flows through every interaction, especially as we navigate the complexities of artificial intelligence and human dignity. In Galatians 3:28, we are called to embrace the radical truth...

Galatians 3:28Christocentric

267 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fingerprints on the Window

When Margaret Chen moved into her first house in Boise in 1987, she spent an entire Saturday cleaning the picture window in the living room...

Psalm 127:3Universalparenting

254 words

Sermon Illustration

The Warmth That Saved Them

In 1978, Dr. Edgar Rey Sanabria faced a crisis at the Instituto Materno Infantil in Bogota, Colombia. Premature babies were dying. Incubators were scarce, overcrowded,...

Universallove

219 words

Sermon Illustration

A Far, Far Better Thing

In Charles Dickens's *A Tale of Two Cities*, Sydney Carton is a man who has squandered every gift he was ever given. Brilliant but broken,...

Universalredemption

259 words

Sermon Illustration

The Light Your Eyes Had to Learn to See

In the 1930s, biophysicist Selig Hecht at Columbia University studied something remarkable about human vision. When you step from bright sunlight into a dark room,...

Universalfaith

216 words

Sermon Illustration

The Family That Sang for Generations

For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family of Thuringia, Germany, produced musicians so consistently that in their region the word "Bach" became a synonym...

Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29Universal

235 words

Devotional

Daily Reflection: Gentleness - Story

As we meditate on Psalm 23, we find ourselves nestled in the gentle embrace of the Shepherd’s care. Picture a soft, sunlit meadow, where the grass sways like a sea of green, inviting us to rest. The psalm begins with...

Psalm 23:1-6Progressive/Social Justice

248 words

Sermon Illustration

The Leap That Looked Like Falling

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, a lanky twenty-one-year-old from Portland, Oregon, did something no one had ever seen. While every other high...

Universalfaith

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bread That Carried Them Home

In 2010, thirty-three Chilean miners were trapped 2,300 feet underground in the San José copper mine for sixty-nine days. In those first seventeen days before...

John 6:51-58Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Irrigation Ditch on Kemper Road

In 1983, a tobacco farmer named Earl Sutton outside Danville, Virginia, faced the driest August anyone could remember. His wells were low. His neighbors had...

Malachi 3:10Universal

262 words

Contemporary

Such a Time as Hers

On October 9, 2012, a masked Taliban gunman boarded a school bus in Mingora, Pakistan, and shot fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai in the head. The bullet...

Esther 4:14Universalcourageeducation

259 words

Historical

The Unarmed Man on the Ridge

On May 5, 1945, Japanese machine gun fire swept across the Maeda Escarpment on Okinawa — a jagged thirty-five-foot cliff face the Americans had nicknamed...

John 15:13Universalcourageconviction

245 words

Movie Analogy

The Shawshank Redemption: Working All Things Together - Traditional (Romans 8:28)

In the heart of Shawshank Prison, where gray walls towered like looming giants and despair seeped into every crack, Andy Dufresne endured years of wrongful imprisonment. The oppressive weight of isolation pressed down on him, yet he cultivated hope amidst...

Romans 8:28Universal

263 words

Historical

Joy Written in Silence

By 1818, Ludwig van Beethoven could not hear a single note. The composer who had once filled Vienna's concert halls now lived in total silence,...

Psalm 40:3Universalperseverancebeauty

272 words

Historical

The Last Prayer of William Tyndale

On the morning of October 6, 1536, guards led William Tyndale from the damp stone cells of Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels to a wooden stake...

Psalm 119:105Universalsacrificetruth

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The King Who Stayed

During the darkest nights of the London Blitz in 1940, advisors urged King George VI to evacuate his family to Canada. German bombers were reducing...

Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10Universal

260 words

Sermon Illustration

Rebooted by Hand

On July 19, 2024, a single faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike crashed 8.5 million Windows computers simultaneously. Hospitals lost access to patient records....

Universalhealing

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Old Bishop Who Would Not Be Silent

In 155 AD, Roman soldiers dragged an elderly bishop named Polycarp into the arena at Smyrna. The crowd roared for his blood. The proconsul offered...

Romans 10:9Universal

240 words

Historical

The Physician Who Saw What Others Overlooked

On March 30, 1842, in the small town of Jefferson, Georgia, Dr. Crawford Williamson Long did something no surgeon had ever done. He soaked a...

Psalm 147:3Universalcompassionrelief

248 words

Historical

Ink Strong Enough to Break a Yoke

On March 20, 1852, the Boston firm of John P. Jewett published a two-volume novel by a minister's daughter from Connecticut. Harriet Beecher Stowe's *Uncle...

Isaiah 58:6Universaljusticecompassion

233 words

Movie Analogy

Fifteen Rounds in Philadelphia

In the original 1976 film *Rocky*, nobody gives Rocky Balboa a chance. He is a small-time boxer from South Philadelphia, a debt collector who trains...

Universalperseverance

241 words